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Occupy Savannah says it's alive and well but charting new courses

Kakky Dye/Special to Savannah Morning News Maxx McKenzie makes signs for protestors to use. Mckenzie, 53, was one of the volunteers helping out at Sunday's Occupy Savannah protest at Emmet Park.

Kakky Dye/Special to Savannah Morning News One of the many protestors stands on Bay Street with her "99%" sign in view of northbound traffic.

Kakky Dye/Special to Savannah Morning News A protestor holds a "wake up" sign with other members of the Occupy Savannah movement Sunday at Emmet Park. The sign is inspired by signs from Occupy Wall Street in New York, which read "DEAR 1%, WE FELL ASLEEP FOR A WHILE. JUST WOKE UP. SINCERELY, THE 99%."

Drive west on East Bay Street, look right and you’ll see the monuments, anchors, trees and grass of Emmet Park.

Nearly a year ago, you’d also have begun to notice the waving signs and chants of the Occupy Savannah movement.

It was a homegrown version of grassroots anti-corporate movements that sprouted nationwide last fall, starting on Wall Street.

Even as some motorists flashed thumbs up as they drove past Emmet, other sometimes loudly taunted, “Get a job!”

“I’m retired so you can have one,” Claudia Collier of Bloomingdale would shout back amiably.

A year later, Emmet is back to just monuments, anchors, trees and grass.

Occupy Savannah hasn’t folded. But like some of its counterparts elsewhere, it’s entered a new phase.

“It’s alive and well,” said Vickie O’Donnell, a teacher who lives on Whitemarsh Island. “It’s kind of evolved. But it’s still about educating people.”

Still others work to feed the hungry, promote federal jobs programs, switch to non-fossil-fueled energy and register more African Americans to vote.

Members gather on Saturdays at Forsyth Park and show issue-oriented films at the nearby Sentient Bean coffee house and at Armstrong Atlantic State University.

There are plans to march on Tuesday from Forsyth to the Chamber of Commerce on Bay Street to support the proposed constitutional amendment. Occupy activists are joining the organizers, a group of retired union members.

“Even when we were at Emmet, we were never just about one thing,” Weeks said. “Now we’ve morphed into people taking activism in their individual directions.”

That was almost inevitable if Occupy Savannah was to survive, Eisinger said.

“It’s a recognition that they needed to do something different,” he said. “They knew that if they kept doing the same thing, people would stop paying attention.”

No apologies

But local Occupy activists say the days of sign waving and slogan chanting at the park were worthwhile and maybe even necessary.

“It let people see how many grievances there are,” Weeks said. “It coalesced awareness among diverse groups of how closely aligned their interests are. The 99 percent was being united.”

Dykes agreed.

“To get anything going, you need a push from the general public,” he said. “But, before that could happen, we needed to start a serious conversation about inequality here and across the country.

“I think that’s what we did. And we’re going to keep it going.”

As the first anniversary of the local movement approached, a sort of cybernetic greeting card was posted on its Facebook page.

“Happy Birthday to our supporters,” it read, “and Happy Birthday to those who have found their voice.”